Chapter 9
Peppajee Jim "Heap Sabes"Peppajee Jim had meditated long in the shade of his wikiup, and
now, when the sun changed from a glaring ball of intense, yellow
heat to a sullen red disk hanging low over the bluffs of Snake
River, he rose, carefully knocked the ashes from his little stone
pipe, with one mechanical movement of his arms, gathered his
blanket around him, pushed a too-familiar dog from him with a shove
of moccasined foot, and stalked away through the sagebrush.
On the brow of the hill, just where the faint footpath dipped
into a narrow gully at the very edge, almost, of the bluff, he
stopped, and lifted his head for an unconsciously haughty stare at
his surroundings.
Beneath him and half a mile or so up the river valley, the
mellow green of Peaceful's orchard w
